The Home Office licence of the company that supplied the Tasers used during the standoff with gunman Raoul Moat was revoked today by the home secretary .

The Home Office said the company involved, Pro-Tect systems, had breached its licence by supplying X12 Tasers directly to the police. The licence only gave the firm permission to supply the stun guns to the Home Office's science and development branch for testing.

The Home Office also said Pro-Tect breached "rules governing the secure transport of the devices and ammunition".

The move means that Pro-Tect, the only supplier of Tasers in the UK, will no longer be able to import and sell the devices.

The decision followed media reports that the Tasers fired at Moat during the six-hour standoff in Rothbury, Northumberland, were not licensed. The gunman's death brought the standoff to an end.

Moat was on the run last July after shooting his former girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart, 22, killing her boyfriend, Chris Brown, 29, and blinding PC David Rathband, 42.

Northumbria firearms officers fired two Tasers at the former nightclub doorman in an "effort to stop him taking his own life", the inquest into his death was told.

James Brokenshire, the Home Office minister, said in a letter to the Commons home affairs select committee that short-term authority had been granted to allow Pro-Tect to dispose of its remaining stock. "You will wish to know that we are working with Acpo [the Association of Chief Police Officers] to ensure that police forces continue to have adequate Taser stocks to cover any transition."

The Home Office said it was satisfied that the company had supplied Tasers and ammunition to Northumbria police and another police force contrary to its authority. There was no suggestion that firearms officers were at fault.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Inquiries following the Raoul Moat operation revealed Pro-Tect breached its licence by supplying Tasers direct to police … The inquiries carried out by Northamptonshire police also revealed the company breached rules governing the secure transport of the devices and ammunition. Faced with these breaches, the home secretary has decided to revoke Pro-Tect's licence to supply Tasers."

The X12 Taser is fired from a 12-gauge shotgun and was being tested by the Home Office before being approved for use by police forces in England and Wales.

The Home Office stressed that the police could use any weapon they saw fit as long as its use was lawful, reasonable and proportionate.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission investigation into the circumstances of Moat's death is continuing. An IPCC spokesman said that it was looking into the acquisition, authorisation and deployment of the XRep Tasers from a police perspective. The licensing of weapons, however, was a matter for the Home Office, he said.

Amnesty International said it was seriously concerned that the Taser appeared to have been used without going through the official weapons testing and approval process. "The Taser XRep is a potentially lethal weapon which fires electric shock bullet-like capsules from a standard 12-gauge shotgun or the new-style Taser weapon," said Oliver Sprague, for Amnesty. "It can send up to 20 seconds of the same intense and debilitating pain as the traditional Taser. The traditional Taser sends five seconds of electric shock."